As the world's leading provider of confidential insider information from 1979 to 2000, Auto Industry Newsletter has now re-emerged by popular request to provide chief executives with the insight necessary to meet today's challenges.
Editor: John Mortimer

Friday, 31 October 2014

Mystery appears to
continue to surround the future of F1 racing team Caterham. As the month of
October closes, employees appear not to have been paid, and those with
mortgages have been forced to seek alternative employment

Employees
who have tried to respond to company emails informing them of cancellation of
flights to the US and Brazil have been thwarted – no replies have been forthcoming
and they have been left in the dark. Some 200 employees have been affected by
the lock-out.

As readers know, JaguarLandRover’s (JLR) Engine Manufacturing Centre (EMC) will be home
to the ‘Ingenium’ engine family, which will power a new generation of JLR
products designed, engineered and manufactured in the UK. The company says
flawless standards will be adopted in the plant that is "future proof".

Production begins with the 2-litre diesel engine in
the Jaguar XE. JLR is transforming its business and brands through a programme
of sustainable, strategic investments, it claims.

Ricardo plc is forming a new motorcycle-focused
business following the acquisition of Leicester-based UK consultancy Vepro Ltd
in a bid to make it a global activity.

The formation of the new motorcycles business aims to build on the strengths
of the company’s extensive existing in-house motorcycle engineering team, based
at the company’s Schwäbisch Gmünd Technical Centre in southern Germany.

Monday, 27 October 2014

By 2050, most vehicles
will need to be electrically propelled, with a battery to store energy or an
on-board hydrogen fuel cell to generate electricity, if emission targets set by
governments are to be met.

That
is the conclusion of a team responsible for penningTowards
Sustainable Road Transportpublished by Elsevier.

Sunday, 26 October 2014

The demise of MG
Rover refuses to go away. Five former MG Roverbosses
are in line for around £1 million each from the proceeds of the collapsed MG
Rover car factory – years after 6,500 redundant workers were deprived of a
single penny, according to newspapers reports.

The
following is a report taken from the UK's Birmingham
Mail of 25 October 2014.

Friday, 24 October 2014

Mercedes-Benz, part of Daimler AG, has won two awards for the
development of new materials in two different applications: pistons and struts.

Mercedes-Benz is claiming between 2 and 4 per cent
improved fuel consumption and CO2 emissions
from its passenger-car diesel engines resulting from "new" pistons. These are, according to Mercedes-Benz, the
first engines worldwide to be equipped with "innovative" steel pistons in
conjunction with a lightweight aluminium cylinder block.

Wednesday, 22 October 2014

By 2016, JaguarLandRover (JLR) expects its new facility in China to be building
three JLR models with total production capacity of 130,000 units a year.

Those vehicles will be manufactured in
highly-automated press shops - including cutting-edge aluminium and steel
technologies - along with a steel body shop comprising 306 ABB robots, an
energy-efficient paint shop and an ergonomically-friendly final assembly line.

Daimler has reorganized its cooperation with Tesla Motors Inc.;
terminated the share-price hedge it initiated in 2013 and sold its four per
cent stake in Tesla.

Daimler adds that cooperation between the partners
on the automotive projects is unaffected and, while development work for the
Mercedes-Benz B-Class Electric Drive is completed, “the partnership with Tesla
remains in place”.

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR)
has confirmed that Her Majesty the Queen will officially open the company’s
new, state-of-the-art Engine Manufacturing Centre on Thursday October 30th2014.
HM The Queen will be accompanied during the visit by His Royal Highness The
Duke of Edinburgh.

Tuesday, 21 October 2014

Daimler AG will
invest a combined €450 million to produce the next generation Mercedes-Benz Sprinter
in two plants at Düsseldorf and Ludwigsfelde, but the German vehicle maker will build more vans in the
US to increase its competitiveness.

Part
of the new investment will be used to modernize the body shop, paint shop, and
assembly line at Düsseldorf.

Monday, 20 October 2014

Is JaguarLandRover (JLR)
mulling an ambitious plan to build a 200,000 cars-a-year assembly plant in the
US? According to the London, UK-based Sunday
Times it is.

The
news comes as the company officially opens a new 130,000 vehicles-a-year plant
in China and later this month is set to open its much-heralded i54 engine manufacturing
facility in Wolverhampton, UK.

Ford’s Dagenham Engine Plant, UK, which supplies half of the company’s
global diesel demand, seems to be assured of its future thanks to an additional £190 million
to produce the new Panther advanced technology 2-litre diesel engine for cars and
commercial vehicles.

This investment includes £8.9 million from UK
Government's Regional Growth Fund. Ford is creating 318 new jobs connected with
this investment.

Friday, 17 October 2014

Trading has begun in
the shares of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles which are listed on the New York Stock
Exchange under the stock ticker symbol “FCAU”.

The shares opened on 14 October at a price of $9. The
price rose briefly before ending the day at $8.92. Considering the Dow Jones
industrial average dropped 222 points late in the day, this was no mean achievement. The stock also trades on
an exchange in Milan, Italy.

Thursday, 16 October 2014

BYD Auto has delivered
34 e6 taxis to the city of Brussels. BYD auto claims to be “the fastest growing
car maker in China”.

The company’s proposal was accepted following a proposal seeking
parties to operate 50 electric taxicabs. The use of these “environmentally-friendly”
taxicabs is seen as an important “first step in bringing emission-free
transport to Brussels’s roads”, replacing gasoline- and diesel-powered taxis
with electric vehicles (EVs).

Saturday, 11 October 2014

PEMS – portable emissions
measurement systems – developed by Horiba Automotive has been used in trials in
Brighton, UK in conjunction with Ricardo plc, to assess ‘real world’ emissions
from three buses, including a diesel-electric hybrid.

PEMS
was developed in response to new requirements for exhaust emissions measurement
from vehicles being driven on public roads.

Friday, 10 October 2014

Volkswagen Group delivered 7.40 million vehicles from January to September - an increase of 5.3 per cent.

Group board member for sales Christian Klingler said in Wolfsburg today,"Even though markets remain challenging, we nevertheless have the chance to reach the ten million deliveries mark this year – four years earlier than originally planned."

Thursday, 9 October 2014

Lotus F1 Team and Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains have a long-term supply agreement that will see Lotus F1 Team use the Mercedes-Benz Power Unit from the start of the 2015 season until the end of the current Power Unit generation.

Lotus F1 Team will be supplied with Mercedes-Benz Power Units by Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains (HPP) based in Brixworth, UK. The Power Unit will use Fluid Technology Solutions developed by PETRONAS, the technology partner of Mercedes-Benz.

GKN has developed the world’s first 'disconnect' All-Wheel Drive (AWD) system for A-, B- and C-segment vehicle platforms. The company claims the system improves fuel economy during steady state cruising by up to four per cent.

Tuesday, 7 October 2014

Volkswagen is about to place an order for a large number of industrial robots offering a lucrative prize to the successful robot vendor. Increasingly, these robots will be used for assembly work and one robot builder may not be able to cope with all of VW's needs.

The move is likely to be repeated several times over the coming 15 years as 32,000 people are expected to leave the German vehicle builder.

Monday, 6 October 2014

Observers are watching with interest, now that Volvo's 45 per cent stakeholding in Dongfeng Commercial Vehicles Co. Ltd. is official, to what extent the Swedish company will be able to influence senior executives in the Chinese truck maker, which has been in business since 1969.

The more so since Cummins Inc. of the US and Dongfeng have a 50-50 joint venture company, Dongfeng Cummins Engine Co. Ltd. Also Knorr-Bremse Commercial Vehicle Systems is expanding in China by taking a 51 per cent stake in Dongfeng Electronic & Technology Co. Ltd to make parts for commercial braking systems.

Friday, 3 October 2014

Production is now under way of the next generation Smart fortwo and the Smart forfour in readiness for the vehicles going on sale in November.
The two new vehicles are built on a new four-wheel-drive architecture that has involved teams from Daimler and Renault which have been working together for the last four years.

The Smart fortwo is being built at Smart's plant in Hambach whereas the forfour and the Renault Twingo are being assembled at the French company's plant in Novo Mesto in Slovenia.

Meanwhile, production of the jointly developed 2-litre, four-cylinder turbocharged gasoline engine has begun at a joint Daimler-Nissan plant, namely the Infiniti Decherd Plant in Decherd, Tennessee.

Interestingly, this new engine will appear, according to sources, in Infinity Q50 vehicles as well as the Mercedes C-Class, which may open a few eyes!

Thursday, 2 October 2014

The Ducati Superleggera twin-cylinder engine can rotate up to 11,000rev/min and has the legendary desmodromic valves as well as titanium connecting rods. The engine drives through as seven-speed double-clutch (DSG) gear box. The engine also makes extensive use of magnesium.

As for the body shell of the XL Sport, VW engineers have adopted resin transfer moulding (RTM), a technology first developed in the UK in the1960s by Lotus, for the carbon fibre composite material (CFRP).

The aerodynamic profile of the XL Sport is sufficient to require no more than a drag coefficient of 0.258.

China is forecast to
make 30 million cars by 2015 and account for 30 per cent of the world market.

This
is the view of Liu Jincheng of SinterCast Trading (Beijing) Co. Ltd who notes that
in 2013, car production and sales amounted to 22,116,800 and 21,984,100
vehicles respectively. The figures show an increase of 14.8 per cent and 13.9
per cent respectively compared to the previous year and account for 25 per cent of the world share.

Wednesday, 1 October 2014

The new Audi TT Sportback five-door concept car that will appear at the Paris Motor Show is powered by a 2-litre TFSI engine developing 400PS and 450Nm of torque.

Audi claims that as a member of the EA888 family, the engine in the four-wheel-drive Quattro concept car uses a comprehensive "package of high-end technologies".

In order to generate the high power, Audi notes that the engine has undergone extensive modifications. The camshaft adjustment on the intake and exhaust sides and the Audi valvelft system, which varies the stroke of the exhaust valve in two stages, ensures good filling of the combustion chambers.

Audi notes that the crankcase consists of "a new high-strength casting alloy" and the crankshaft has enforced iaultrahigh-strength steel.

The redeveloped turbocharger has been configured to provide a boost pressure of 1.8 bar.

The gasoline engine has been teamed with a seven-speed S-Tronic gearbox.

Andy Palmer is the
new chief executive officer of Aston Martin. He has spent the last 24 years
with Nissan Motor Manufacturing UK where latterly he has been chief planning
officer and executive vice president.

Palmer,
51, assumes operational responsibility for all aspects of Aston Martin business
and thus one of his prime interests no doubt will be to turn the company round
and put it on a long-term profitable footing.